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British Marines Arrive in Kabul as First Wave
Of an International Security Force for Region

By

Guy Chazan Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal

Updated Dec. 21, 2001 12:01 a.m. ET

KABUL, Afghanistan -- British marines began arriving in Kabul, the first wave of an international peacekeeping force designed to restore stability to post-Taliban Afghanistan.

The troops, initially numbering about 200, are meant to enhance security ahead of the swearing in of a transitional government on Saturday. But they landed in a country still beset by violence as local warlords and their private armies loot humanitarian-aid convoys and rob and kill people traveling between major cities.